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Network Registrar provides several ways to administer and manage DNS/DHCP servers:
This chapter describes the Network Registrar user interfaces. Read this chapter before you start to configure your Network Registrar servers so you are familiar with the basic capabilities of each user interface.
For detailed procedural information on how to perform administrative tasks on Network Registrar servers, see the "Administering Network Registrar" chapter.
Through Network Registrar's graphical user interface (GUI), you can control your servers' operations. The GUI consists of the following elements:
To start Network Registrar, you need to start the program and log in to a cluster. A cluster is a DNS and/or DHCP server that shares the same Network Registrar database. Adding a cluster tells Network Registrar about the existence of a cluster. To configure or administer the cluster you must also connect to it.
Note Typically, Network Registrar's DNS and DHCP servers are running on the same physical machine. In this case, the term cluster refers to the physical machine.
You can start the Network Registrar GUI at any time--the servers do not need to be running. Note that you cannot save changes however, unless the servers are running. The DHCP and DNS servers can be stopped, but the server agent must be running on any cluster that you want to connect to.
When running the Solaris GUI, choose the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) if available, in preference to the OpenWindows Desktop. The appearance of the Solaris GUI is superior under CDE.
where install path is the directory that you chose to install Network Registrar. Network Registrar displays the Server Manager.
Step 2 Click Add to add a new cluster.
Step 3 Type the hostname of the cluster or specify localhost if the cluster is located on the same machine as the GUI.
Step 4 In the Login to cluster dialog box, enter the username admin and the password changeme.
Note You should change the username and the password from the defaults to appropriate ones for your site.
Step 5 Enter your license key.
The first time you connect to a cluster, you are prompted for a license key. For more information about licensing, see the Getting Started with Network Registrar manual.
Step 2 Click Add to add a new cluster.
Step 3 Type the hostname of the cluster or specify localhost if the cluster is located on the same machine as the GUI.
Step 4 In the Login to cluster dialog box, enter the username admin and the password changeme.
Note You should change the username and the password from the defaults to appropriate ones for your site.
Step 5 Enter your license key.
The first time you connect to a cluster, you are prompted for a license key. For more information about licensing, see the Getting Started with Network Registrar.
The commands handle administration and affect the way you can view Network Registrar activity. Commands are grouped in task-specific menus on the menu bar (Figure 2-1).
The Admin menu (Figure 2-2) contains commands that allow you to:
The Servers menu (Figure 2-3) allows you to control the servers, add servers to the Server Status Monitor (Figure 2-11), and display server statistics.
For more information about how to perform server adminstration tasks, see "Administering Network Registrar" in this guide.
You can use the Server Status Monitor window (Figure 2-11) to view the state of your servers.
For more information about the Server Status Monitor window, see the "Server Status Monitor Window" section.
The View menu (Figure 2-4) governs viewing of the Network Registrar windows.
The View menu (Figure 2-4) contains the following commands:
The Window menu (Figure 2-5) lets you control the appearance and positioning of the Network Registrar windows.
The Window menu (Figure 2-5) contains the following commands:
The Help menu (Figure 2-6) contains the online help and the About Network Registrar box.
The toolbar (Figure 2-7) displays button that access the most frequently used commands.
Note When you have selected an item in the Server Manager window (Figure 2-10), you can also use the right-mouse commands to perform some of the same functions that are possible through the toolbar. You can also double-click on the icon for the server.
The Show Properties toolbar button (Figure 2-7) lets you configure either a DNS server or zone or DHCP server or scope depending on the current selection.
The Control toolbar button (Figure 2-7) displays the Server's Control dialog box (Figure 2-8). From this dialog box you can change the server's state; for example, if the server is stopped, you can start it. If you click Cancel, the server stays in its current state; if you click OK, you either stop or reload the server.
The Show Statistics toolbar button (Figure 2-7) displays the Statistics window (Figure 2-9). You can choose to sort the selected server's statistics by Name or by Value.
The Add toolbar button (Figure 2-7) lets you add clusters, DNS zones, or DHCP scopes, depending on what you have selected. If you select the DNS server, it allows you to add zones; if you select DHCP server, it allows you to add scopes. However, if you select the TFTP server, you cannot anything.
Note The Add button lets you add items to the Server Manager window (Figure 2-10). This button does not let you add items to the Server Status Monitor (Figure 2-11).
The Remove toolbar button (Figure 2-7) lets you remove cluster, DNS zones, or DHCP scopes from the Server Manager window (Figure 2-10), depending on what you have selected.
The Server Manager window (Figure 2-10) and the Server Status Monitor window (Figure 2-11) are the two main windows that you can use to configure and monitor Network Registrar.
The Server Manager window (Figure 2-10) is a standard Windows tree control that contains a list of clusters at its top-level node. Under each cluster, there are lists of servers. From each of these servers, there is a subtree that contains server-specific data structures. This display lets you select servers for browsing, configuration and control, or status information.
Each of the top-level nodes in the tree control has a plus (+) symbol, which indicates that there are subnodes. When you click the node, Network Registrar attempts to connect to the node, using the last name and password you entered. If this is not the correct name and password, Network Registrar prompts you for another one.
When you click a server, Network Registrar reads the names of the scopes or zones. Only when you click a scope or zone does Network Registrar read the data in the node.
Some of the nodes may not have subnodes, that is, a DNS server may not have zones, or a DHCP server may not have scopes. When you click the plus symbol for these nodes, the plus symbol disappears. This behavior is similar to the behavior of Windows Explorer in Windows NT, 95, and 98.
Note Network Registrar treats the @ symbol in server names (tree control) as a special character. Before displaying the server name, Network Registrar removes all characters after and including the @ symbol. This is typically the cluster name; however, if you rename your server using an @ symbol, the characters after the @ symbol are lost.
The Server Manager uses icons to indicate different Network Registrar components. Table 2-1 lists all the icons you will see in the Server Manager tree control.
Table 2-1 Network Registrar Icons
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
DNS server that needs to be reloaded (the red star indicates the need to reload.) |
|
The Server Status Monitor window (Figure 2-11) is a window in which you can place server icons so that you can monitor their state. The icons change to reflect the server's current state. For instructions on how to add or remove servers from the Server Status Monitor window, see the "Server Status Monitor Window" section.
The following items can decrement the health of the servers:
Note When Network Registrar cannot contact the server, you will see the warning triangle and exclamation point and the green or red color is muted. The warning can mean one of the following conditions: the network is down; the server machine has crashed; or the server agent has been stopped from the control panel.
The Status bar (Figure 2-12) appears at the bottom of the Network Registrar Server Manager window. It provides information about commands or actions. When you highlight a menu item, you will see a short description of its function in the status bar.
Through Network Registrar's command line interface (CLI) nrcmd, you can control your servers' operations. It allows you to set all Network Registrar configurable options, as well as to start and stop the servers.
For detailed procedural information on how to perform administrative tasks on Network Registrar servers using the command line interface, see "Administering Network Registrar".
This remainder of this section describes how to use the nrcmd command and provides the following information:
You can use the nrcmd command in batch mode by executing scripts that use the commands, or by using the interactive mode in which you enter commands at the nrcmd program prompt.
The nrcmd command is located in:
The command syntax is as follows:
These general options are not required. If you supply them, you must precede them with -C, -N, or -P. If you do not supply them, Network Registrar gets them from the registry (on NT), or environment variables (on Solaris and NT). If Network Registrar cannot find values for these parameters, it prompts you for them.
Note If you do not specify -C clustername on a system where NR servers are installed, the nrcmd command assumes access to localhost and does not prompt you.
The NT registry and Solaris or NT environment variables are AIC_NAME for the name, AIC_PASSWORD for the password, and AIC_CLUSTER for the cluster name. The NT registry path is Software\American Internet\Registrar\2.0 and the registry hive is HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
To execute the command line interface in interactive mode, type:
Typing this command displays the interactive prompt nrcmd> to which you type:
To specify a series of items, use commas between the items. Do not add a space after the comma.
Exiting Network Registrar's user interface does not affect your network servers' or your hosts' ability to request leases or access the Internet.
To exit Network Registrar's CLI, use the exit command. Network Registrar writes all of your unsaved changes to the database; however the server does not read the new changes until you use the reload command. If Network Registrar is unable to save your changes, it displays the same error code as if you had used the save command.
Use the exit command to quit Network Registrar's command line interface when you are in interactive mode.
To view the online help for the Network Registrar nrcmd command line interface, type help.
The nrcmd commands specify a class of object that you can create, delete, or list. Each of these objects in turn has properties that you can set or get, and features that you can enable, disable, or test. These objects can also have methods that are specific to the type of object, and that let you perform operations on groups of properties.
When you use the nrcmd commands to configure Network Registrar, you manipulate the following:
How you specify a series of arguments depends on the type of command you are using. The following sections describe the difference between using the create, set, and enable commands.
When you use the create command and there are required arguments, you must supply them. You can also supply additional arguments. You must supply the required arguments in the specified order; however, you can specify the optional arguments in any order with the syntax prop=value.
For example, the syntax for creating a scope is scope name create addr mask [prop=value], which means that you must supply an IP address and mask when you create a scope, and you can optionally specify other properties of the scope.
The following example creates the scope testScope with the IP address of 128.103.1.1 and a mask of 255.255.255.0.
If you want to create a scope and also specify the name of the DNS zone to which a DHCP client's host name should be added, type:
After the create command creates and assigns all specified parameters to the object, it checks that all the required properties have values (either defaults or user-specified). If you neglect to supply the required arguments, Network Registrar reports an error.
You use the set command to set the value of a property. If you want to set a list of things, such as DNS servers, or IP addresses, you can separate them with commas. You can also use the set command to set several properties on a single line—just specify the property and its value followed by a space and the next property and value pair.
To specify the name of the DNS zone to which a DHCP client's host name should be added, type:
To specify the list of IP addresses that you will allow to perform zone transfers, type:
To set the client's client-class and domain-name, type:
You use the enable command to enable a feature. After you enable a feature you often need to set its associated properties.
To enable incremental transfer processing for the DNS server, type:
Then to change the incremental transfer expiration interval, type:
Note You cannot add set commands to an enable command line. First enable the feature, and then on the next command line, set the associated properties.
The CLI saves your changes to the database after one of the following events occurs:
This section contains the complete list of commands, grouped alphabetically. You can use them on the command line or insert them into scripts.
The Network Registrar Web GUI (Web GUI) lets you log in to your Network Registrar servers and run four different types of reports. These reports are:
The remainder of this section explains how to access the Web GUI and describes the components used to run Network Registrar status reports.
Step 2 Enter the Name and Password fields.
Step 3 Click Reporting. The Network Registrar Web GUI Reporting screen appears (Figure 2-14).
To run the Server status report:
Step 2 Click Server Status. The Server Status Report screen (Figure 2-15) displays a report for the specified server.
Figure 2-15 shows the type of output displayed.
To run the Address Usage report:
Step 2 Type the mask bits number or accept the default of 16.
Step 3 Click DHCP Only if you want to display the Address Usage report for DHCP leases only.
Step 4 Click Address Usage. The Address Usage Report Request screen displays a report for the specified server or all servers.
Figure 2-16 shows the type of output displayed for all servers, with DHCP Only selected.
To run the Lease status report:
Step 2 Click Lease Server Status.
Figure 2-17 shows the type of output displayed for a server's leases.
To run the Related Servers report:
Step 2 Click Related Servers.
Figure 2-18 shows the type of output displayed for a server's leases.
If Network Registrar cannot run the report you requested, it displays an error. Table 2-3 lists and explains the errors you might see.
Table 2-3 Errors Reported for Web GUI Reports
Posted: Wed Feb 19 12:16:56 PST 2003
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